Category Archives: Anniversaries

Rose Marie Cleese displays a handful of old photos and with the help of Kerri Young of Historypin scans the historic pictures at a workstation on the main floor of the California Historical Society Friday, July 17, 2015. Photo by Mike Koozmin, S.F. Examiner.

On July 17th, our US team collaborated in a public launch of Historypin’s new 1915 San Francisco World’s Fair mapping project with the California Historical Society (CHS), on the 100th anniversary of the iconic Liberty Bell arriving at the fair. The Liberty Bell, an American icon and symbol of independence, traveled over 3,000 miles by rail from its home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after hundreds of thousands of school children signed a petition to get the bell to San Francisco’s Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE). In CHS’s gallery festively-decorated with paper bells, Community Officer Kerri Young helped Rose Marie Cleese, the granddaughter of San Francisco’s former Mayor Angelo Rossi (1931-44), scan never-before-seen family photographs into our new digital project.

At the time of the fair, Rossi was a florist who helped design and build the ornate float that carried the Liberty Bell from San Francisco’s Townsend Street rail station to the fairgrounds in what is now the city’s Marina district. Rose Marie contributed photographs of the float on its procession, as well as of her grandparents and mother posing with the Bell in its temporary home in the fair’s Pennsylvania Building. Remarkably, Historypin contributor Lynn Sons was able to identify her own grandfather, who was a member of the Liberty Bell Honor Guard at the fair, in one of the photos that Rose Marie contributed, and we were able to connect the two of them in this piece of shared history.

The Liberty Bell sub-project is a great example of the collaborative archiving we hope to encourage around the PPIE, with institutions such as the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and The San Francisco Public Library contributing along with individuals like Rose Marie and Lynn Sons. We hope that many others will be inspired to contribute their family photographs and help enrich the 2000+ existing pins in the project as we continue to celebrate this special centenary year.

Here are a few photographs of our fun day scanning and pinning:

Scanning station set-up in the California Historical Society with Rose Marie’s photographs.

A sample of some of the family photographs brought in by Rose Marie for scanning.

Showing Rose Marie photos of her grandfather’s floral company Pelicano, Rossi & Co. displaying at the fair in photos contributed by UC Davis Libraries. Rose Marie had never seen these previously and was very excited to see that they had been contributed to the project!

The Liberty Bell being paraded up San Francisco’s Van Ness Ave in July 1915 on the float designed by Rossi. In the foreground is James J. Quirk, identified by his granddaughter Lynn Sons.

Three generations of the Rossi family: Rose Marie poses with her nephew Ron Forsell and grandchildren Grace and Matt, while holding a photo of her own mother and grandfather at the PPIE.

See some great local media coverage of this event here and here, and add your own photos or comments about the fair by visiting the project page here.

Australia day is celebrated on 26th January, and we took the occasion to ask a few questions of the folks at the Royal Australian Historical Society (RAHS), who recently joined Historypin. We fully intend to take them up on their offer of tea the next time we’re in Sydney, and hope you do too!

Stepping to Health in 1938, shared by the Royal Australian Historical Society

Can you tell us a little bit about the RAHS and its history?

The RAHS is a voluntary organisation that exists to encourage the study of and interest in Australian history. It provides opportunities for people to engage with Australian history in a number of different ways: participating in historical research; attending lectures, discussions, tours, conferences and workshops; enjoying RAHS publications; using the RAHS library and online resources. The Society was founded in 1901 at a time when history in Australia was very British in origin and focus. RAHS members were at the forefront of promoting all aspects of Australia’s past including Aboriginal, colonial, convict and migrant experiences. In 1906 the Society began to publish the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society (JRAHS), now the longest established journal on Australian history. The RAHS continues to build on its pioneering origins to reflect the changing ways in which we can engage with the past. However we do like to honour old traditions. So if people are visiting Sydney, they are more than welcome to drop into History House, home of the RAHS, and have a cup of tea.

Why did you choose Historypin as a platform to share some of your collections, and how does it fit into RAHS strategy?

The founding members of the RAHS believed that it was critical to establish photographic collections that captured Australia’s history. Their focus in 1901 was on preserving images of buildings that were to be demolished by Sydney City Council. By 1917 the Society’s glass slide collection was established, with the donation of 180 slides by James Watson, the Society’s Honorary Secretary. Many of the slides in this collection were used by members to illustrate lectures and were also reproduced in the JRAHS. Historypin is therefore an ideal platform for the RAHS since it continues this tradition of openness and accessibility to images that help us understand the changing nature of the spaces in which we live and work.

Tell us a bit about the collections you’re featuring and how you chose them.

We have been featuring images from the RAHS photographic collection that includes over 20,000 original glass and film negatives, slides and prints. The way in which the RAHS approaches its selection of images and collections for inclusion on Historypin is largely based on what the RAHS is engaged with at a particular time. Our initial focus has been on images taken and collected by former president of the RAHS, Frank Walker (1861 – 1948). Walker cycled almost 35,000 kilometres around New South Wales taking thousands of images on glass plate negatives. In 1913, Walker was President of the RAHS in the centenary year of the first crossing of the Blue Mountains by European explorers. In 2013 we featured images Walker captured during the centenary celebrations, including glass slides and cuttings from the scrapbooks he compiled. In 2014 the RAHS will be looking to have collections connected to what happened after Europeans crossed the mountains, in particular the impact of European inland settlement of New South Wales.

Do you have a favorite image on Historypin from your collection?

The RAHS is currently putting together a collection that explores the way in which Australians celebrated the Sesquicentenary of European settlement in 1938, and of the various meanings attributed to Australia’s national day. This collection will act as a fitting lead up to Australia Day 2014, when the RAHS will open the doors of its beautiful heritage building ‘History House’ to the public and will host talks on Australian history by its own historians. Our favourite image at the moment shows the ‘Peter’s Ice Cream’ float on parade on Australia Day 1938 (above). The detail and workmanship of the float in the image illustrates the enthusiasm with which Australians took to celebrating its national day. We also like the fact that eating ice cream meant ‘ stepping to health’ in 1938.

For those of us not familiar, what is Australia Day and how do people celebrate it?

Australia Day, the 26th January, marks the anniversary of the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788. Modern Australia is a nation of diversity and the way in which it is celebrated and commemorated has evolved over time. It wasn’t until 1935 that all the Australian states and territories started to even use the term ‘Australia Day’ to mark the arrival of the First Fleet. In 2014 Australia Day is celebrated with community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies, in many communities and cities around the country. However it is not just a day of celebration, but one of commemoration. Members of the Indigenous community have regarded it as a day of British invasion, and subsequently a major turning point in the history of the Australian Aboriginal community. The 1938 sesquicentenary was, therefore, commemorated by some as a Day of Mourning.

Photograph of Kennedy Family with Dogs During a Weekend at Hyannisport, 08/14/1963, shared by US National Archives.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, fifty years ago this week. It was a defining moment for America, and almost anyone who is old enough to have memories at that age can tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news.

Many families have stories, memories, and memorabilia of the Kennedy family, and we invite you to pin yours on Historypin, where they can be explored together with some of the amazing archival photos you’ll find on the map. There are some great photos that have been mapped by members from the JFK Library, and from the National Archives (photo above). Of course there are many commemoration events and stories this week, and you might also want to view and share touching stories from the JFK Library on their site, An Idea Lives On.

Click the map to find content tagged with "kennedy." Please add "John F. Kennedy" or "Kennedy" as a tag to any photos or memorabilia you add and it will be added to this map view. Some of these photos are located on John F. Kennedy streets, which is interesting as well!

For me, growing up in a Catholic family in the midwest, very active in the social justice activism of the time, Kennedy was a very big deal. My dad was a priest then and his colleague at the Catholic diocesan newspaper took this photo of him with JFK during a 1959 campaign fundraiser in Lafayette, Indiana. You can imagine my surprise in finding that one in the family photo album when I was studying American history in middle school! I also remember discovering the Vaughn Meader First Family parody album. Does your family have any photos or memorabilia to share?

Fr. Joe Voss, Fr. Ted Zimmer, an unidentified nun, and John F. Kennedy on the campaign trail in 1959.

Today is the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. The 7.9 quake struck the city at 5.12am on Wednesday 18th April, causing immense destruction and loss of life.

San Francisco Municipal Transport Archives have uploaded some incredible images from their collection, many of which are on Street View enabling you to compare the damaged Edwardian streetscape to today’s modern city. This photo of Washington & Mason Carhouse was taken on 18th April, the day the quake struck:

The fires triggered by the quake were even more devastating than the earthquake itself. Here you can see the Powerhouse on Polk and Sutter after the earthquake, and then after the fire:

Many people fled to higher ground, like Alamo Square, watching the fires rage below:

The army was called in to help manage the crisis, and quickly makeshift housing for the displaced sprang up around the city as people tried to rebuild in the aftermath.

"The Little Giant," the famed fire hydrant at 20th and Church Streets, credited with stopping the fires following the 1906 earthquake. Every year it is repainted and commemorated. Seen here the morning of April 18, 2012.

100 years ago tonight, over 1,500 people lost their lives as the RMS Titanic perished in the icy waters of the Atlantic. The following collections and tours on Historypin memorialize the tragic fate of the great ship.